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Corinthian and the of the Alchemists

DavidM Jacobson The Centre fOr RapidDesign and Manufacture, Buckingham Chilterns University College, High Wycombe, HP11 2JZ, UK

Received: 1 July 1999

Alloys that went under the name of were highly prized in the Roman Empire at the beginning of the Christian era, when Corinthian Bronze was used to embellish the great gate of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem. From the ancient texts it emerges that Corinthian Bronze was the name given to a family of alloys with gold and which were depletion gilded to give them a golden or silver lustre. An important centre of production appears to have been Egypt where, by tradition, had its origins. From an analysis of the earliest alchemical texts, it is suggested that the concept of transmutation of base into gold arose from the depletion process.

CORINTHIAN BRONZE AND ITS main constituent because it is classified as bronze (aes IDENTIFICATION in ), and is discussed by Pliny in the section of his encyclopaedia dealing with copper and bronze. Ancient texts in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Syriac refer However, Pliny indicates that their hue varied from to a type of called Corinthian Bronze which they golden to silvery, depending on the proportions of the prize above all other copper alloys. The Roman additions, and it was this lustre that encyclopaedist, Pliny, who lived in the 1st century AD, gave this bronze its attractive appearance. Both states that Corinthian Bronze was valued "before silver and comment on the fact that, unlike other and almost before gold" (1). He proceeds to discuss the copper alloys, Corinthian Bronze was resistant to appearance and composition of Corinthian Bronze as tarnishing (6). Tagged onto the first description of follows: "There are three kinds of this sort of bronze: a Corinthian Bronze, quoted above, is a mention of white variety, coming very near to silver in brilliance, another bronze "valued in portrait statues and others in which the of silver predominates; a second for its particular colour" which approached "the kind in which the yellow quality of gold predominates; appearance of liver and consequently called by a Greek and a third kind in which all the metals are blended in name , meaning liverish." Pliny adds that "it equal proportions." (2). In another passage, Pliny notes is far behind the Corinthian blend" in value. As we the pleasing appearance that the gold and silver shall see, the reason why Pliny grouped this type of alloying elements lend to Corinthian Bronze (3). alloy together with Corinthian Bronze is that it also A story that circulated widely in the Roman contained gold and silver, although in much smaller Empire from the first century AD onwards related that proportions. Corinthian Bronze originated during the burning of Not surprisingly, it was the highly prized golden Corinth at the time of its capture by the Romans in variety of Corinthian Bronze that received most 146 BC (4). According to this account, the alloy was attention from ancient writers. The Jewish authors of first produced by accident when a building containing the Classical period were dazzled by the Corinthian gold, silver and much copper caught fire and the Bronze doors of the Nicanor Gate in the Temple in metals alloyed together (5). Jerusalem. These doors "far exceeded in value those From these descriptions, we learn that Corinthian doors plated in silver and set with gold" (7). The Bronze stood for a family of alloys containing gold and Nicanor Gate formed the main entrance to the inner silver, although we must presume that copper was the courts and was, doubtless, identical with the "Beautiful

60 §9' GoldBulletin2000,33(2) (yellow) and metal (gold) (15). The same manuscript also contains an abbreviated recipe for making "black Corinthian metal" (16). This would seem to refer to Pliny's dark-hued hepatizon bronze. Evidently, by the time that this text was composed, a blurring of the definition of Corinthian Bronze had occurred. Like Pliny's hepatizon, the black Corinthian metal is recommended in the Syriac text for use in statues. A later document, a lexicon composed in the l Oth century AD by the Syriac scholar Bar Bahlul, refers to Corinthian Bronze (17). Bar Bahlul agrees with Pliny that it is "part silver, part gold and part copper" and he adds that it is "bronze from which one makes gold and silver." This last statement finds an interesting echo in a recipe preserved in the Leiden Papyrus X, described Figure 1 Possible rep mentation ofthe GateofNicanor in the below. Temple in Jerusalem with itsgolden doors in a mural above the Torah shrineofthemid third centuryAD. synagogue ofDura Europos in Syria. CORINTHIAN BRONZE AND Gate" mentioned in Acts 3:2. According to the early Rabbinical work known as the Mishnah, this gate was the only one whose doors were not plated with gold, By scouring the ancient Greek, Latin and Syriac but composed of a bronze that shone "with a yellowish literature, it is possible to reconstruct the manufacture hue" (8). The Rabbinical authors agree explicitly with of Corinthian Bronze (18). We learn that its Josephus that these doors were made of Corinthian production involved further processing after alloying. Bronze, "which was as beautiful as gold" (9). Nicanor, This included a heat-treatment followed by a quench the donor of these precious doors, lived in the 1st and burnishing (19). All these constituent steps are century AD in Alexandria but was buried in Jerusalem, consistent with depletion gilding (or silvering), where his inscribed ossuary has been found (10). whereby copper is oxidized and removed from the According to the Jewish sources, the doors were surface of the bronze item by acid pickling, leaving the brought from Alexandria, his native city, and it is surface with a gold (or silver) layer, as explained below. reasonable to assume that they were also made there The alloying and processing technology suggested by (11). The Nicanor Gate is possibly the structure the sources for the production of Corinthian Bronze is depicted in fresco above the Torah shrine in the mid­ articulated in a recipe contained in the Leiden Papyrus X 2nd century synagogue at Dura Europos on the from Thebes in Egypt, the oldest surviving metallurgical Euphrates, which is preserved with the rest of the cycle text (20, 21). The papyrus appears to date from the of wall paintings in the Damascus Museum (12). The fourth century AD, but it has been shown that several of doors have two leaves, which are coloured yellow, to its recipes derive from even more ancient compilations represent gold (see Figure 1). (22). The relevant recipe (No. 15) describes a process Further association of Corinthian Bronze with a called "the colouration (chrJsis) ofgold": golden hue is to be found in Syriac sources. Thus, the "To colour gold, to render it fit for usage. Misy, salt Hebrew "goodly yellowed bronze" is rendered into and vinegar accruing from the purification of gold; Syriac as "Corinthian Bronze" in the Syriac "Peshitta" mix it all and throw in the vessel [which contains it] version of Ezra 8:27, datable to ca200 AD (13). Then, the [debased] gold described in the preceding in a Syriac text attributed to Zosim us, one of the early preparation; let it remain some time, [and then] having luminaries of alchemy, but composed between the 7th drawn [the gold] from the vessel, heat it upon the and l Oth centuries AD, a recipe is given "to make the coals; then again throw it in the vessel which contains golden or Corinthian colour" (14). Alongside this the above-mentioned preparation; do this several times heading in the surviving manuscript, preserved in until it becomes fit for use [ieas gold] (23). Cambridge, appears the symbol EB, which primarily From this description, we may discern a repeated represents the sun, but also the associated colour sequence of heat-treatment and pickling operations,

~ GoldBulletin2000,33(2) 61 using misy, salt and vinegar. Misy has been firmly identified with basic hydrated ferric sulphates, in (1) particular the mineral copiapite, which, when mixed Cas t i ngot with salt in solution, form ferric chloride and sulfuric acid (24,25). Ingot has duplex microstruct ure: (Cu + Au, Ag + Au phases) The manufacturing process in question would have corresponded to depletion gilding (or silvering), whereby the , copper, is leached out of the surface of the alloy item by oxidation and acid pickling, to leave a gold- or silver-rich layer with a matt texture. A final burnishing operation is required to (2) achieve a bright finish. This is precisely the procedure Cold work and heat that was used by the pre-Columbian peoples of the in air Andes for manufacturing items of (ie copper­ gold-silver alloys) (26 - 28). The probable recipe that was employed by the ancient American Indians for depletion gilding tumbaga has been reconstructed and Fe2(S04)3 + NaCI + H20 it is virtually identical to that given in the Leiden Papyrus X. The steps are as follows (29): (3) Porous Au 1) Cast an ingot of a copper alloy containing more than about 15wt% gold and approximately 5wt% Pickle silver. 2) Cold-work the ingot with intermediate annealing/quenching stages until the required ~ ~ D e n s e A u geometry is achieved. Although relatively hard, (4) such alloys have some workability when in an

annealed condition. A black scale of cupric oxide Burnish forms on the surface. 3) Coat the item with a pickling preparation in the form of an aqueous paste of pulverised iron sulfate mineral, mixed together with salt and optionally Figure 2 Schematic representation oftheprocedure fir vinegar. As the pickling agent strips off the oxide depletion gilding copper alloys containing goldand scale and progressively leaches out silver from the silver. ( 1) A copper-silver-gold alloy isprepared and surface, the colour of the surface changes from cast asan ingot. (2) The ingotis coldworkedto black, to whitish and eventually to a light brown, shape and annealedin several successive stages by characteristic ofa matt coating ofgold. heatingto 500-700°C and quenching. A blackscale 4) Finally, burnish the item to produce a shiny yellow ofcupric oxidefOrms on thesurftce. (3) The item is surface. coated with a picklingpreparation in thefirm ofan These steps are shown schematically in Figure 2. aqueous pasteofpulverisedcopiapite or metauoltine, The depletion gilding and silvering process work containing jerriesulphate, mixed together with salt and optionally vinegar. Thepicklingagentstrips off satisfactorily for copper-silver and copper-silver-gold the oxidescale andprogressively leaches silver ftom alloys, but not for copper-gold alloys without silver. the surftce. The resulting gold-rich surftce isporous The process relies on the fact that silver is not highly and appears matt. (4) The item is burnishedto soluble in copper and when alloyed, eutectic phase produce a dense, shiny, goldsurftce. separation occurs. Any gold added will enter both the copper- and silver-rich phases. The combination of a depletion gilding and also of a Cu-10wt%Ag alloy heat treatment and acid pickling will preferentially before (C) and after (D) depletion silvering. remove the oxidised beta phase from the surface of the This depletion technique has been used material, leaving it silver- or gold-rich, depending on successfully by ancient metal-workers in the central the gold concentration (30). Andes to gild articles ofsheet metal containing as little Figure 3 shows the colour of a Cu-10wt%Ag­ as 12wt% gold (31). The significant precious metal 25wt%Au alloy coupon before (A) and after (B) content of Corinthian Bronze would explain why it

62 (ei9' GoldBulletin2000, 33(2) shown in gold artefacts from Iron Age Britain (37). The apparent lack of depletion-gilded bronze artefacts from Roman contexts may simply mean that they have not been recognized. After abrasion or corrosion ofthe bronze, the original surface treatment may not be recognized and, moreover, depletion-gilding can easily be mistaken for conventional mercury gilding. The key to the rediscovery of artefacts of Corinthian Bronze must be the identification of copper-silver-gold compositions among antique metal objects. However, the fact that we possess a description of the process of depletion gilding from Roman Egypt, namely the Leiden Papyrus X, as well as identified depletion gilded and silvered artefacts of a similar antiquity; provides sure proof that this technology was in use in the Figure 3 Ingots ofa Cu-lOwt%Ag-25wt%Au alloy before (Aj and after (B) depletion gilding and also ofa Cu­ Roman Empire. Indeed, it has been claimed that the IOwt%Agalloy before (C) and after (D) depletion colour tones of Corinthian Bronze, as described by silvering. Pliny; can be discerned among the bronze vessels depicted in Roman wall paintings from Campania (38). was so highly valued in the Roman Empire, Other types of gilding were also in use in the notwi thstanding the fact that it was less than the cost Classical \'Vorld: these processes and the relevant of pure gold while possessing the same surface Classical textual sources have been expertly reviewed in appearance. It also accounts for the fact that the use of a fairly recent German publication (39). Gilding by the Corinthian Bronze was mostly limited to small application of gold-mercury amalgam was practised in domestic items, such as plates, bowls, vases and the Mediterranean World since the 2nd or 1st century figurines (32). Such objects are normally fashioned by BC and it became widely used for gilding casting rather than being hammered into shape. This is because it was relatively economical and better suited consistent with the hardness of copper-silver-gold to gilding large surfaces. However, mercury gilding is alloys. The doors of the Gate of Nicanor in Herod's degraded by the presence oftin and lead in the bronze, Temple were, doubtless, made as large castings, as were elements which enhance the casting properties of the the surviving Roman bronze doors of the Pantheon in metal. Moreover, mercury gilding, along with the other Rome (33). This supposition finds support in their methods that were used with bronze in antiquity, great weight: Josephus, the 1st century AD historian, produces a discrete gold coating with an abrupt mentions that they "could scarcely be moved (on their interface to the underlying bronze which is susceptible hinges) by twenty men." (34). to peeling off the surface while, by contrast, depletion The material evidence for Corinthian Bronze is gilding results in a graded interface. Although limited. It has been proved that depletion silvering was Corinthian Bronze was considerably more expensive used to produce a silvered surface on debased late 3rd than mercury-gilded bronze, on account of the fact - early 4th century AD denarii and antoniani, that gold has to be added to the bulk of the bronze containing typically 4Owt% silver. Metallographic instead of being limited to the surface coating, it studies of coin samples have shown that the process produces a more durable gilding which is tolerant to used was exactly the same as the one that we have the presence of tin and lead, thereby making it reconstructed, involving heating, quenching, pickling particularly advantageous for bronze castings. and finally burnishing (35). A non-destructive Depletion gilding appears to stretch back to the examination of a selection of Celtic gold coins in the 4th millennium BC, and an example illustrating the Basel Historical Museum has shown that most were application of this technique to debased gold, in the made of ternary copper-silver-gold alloys, with gold form of a ceremonial dagger, has been identified contents as low as 2Owt%, or even less.There was clear among the artefacts recovered from the Royal Tombs at evidence of gold enrichment at the surface consistent Dr in Mesopotamia, dating from the 3rd millennium with depletion gilding (36). A similar familiarity with BC (40). In the Classical period, the centre of copper-silver-gold alloys and their potential has been manufacture of Corinthian Bronze, which we have

@ GoldBulletin2000,33(2) 63 identified with depletion-gilded and silvered copper A somewhat different interpretation has been alloys, seems to have been Egypt, including Alexandria. offered by Paul Craddock and his co-workers (45,46). There is substantial evidence that the techniques for In their view, a copper alloy with a low content of gold colouring metals were especially developed in Egypt and silver (typically < 2wt% of each of these) and and reach back to Pharaonic times (41). It is also finished with a black parination is genuine Corinthian significant in this respect that the Leiden Papyrus X Bronze. The chief merit of their suggestion is that was an Egyptian metallurgical text. Therefore, the examples have been found among surviving Roman Alexandrian origin of the doors for the main entrance decorative metalwork and it fits well with the "black to the Inner Temple in Jerusalem fits well into this Corinthian metal" described in the Syriac "Zosimus" context. manuscript and mentioned earlier. The text gives the As we have seen, references to Corinthian Bronze composition of this metal as "8 parts of gold and 8 run down to the tenth century AD. Yet, its heyday parts of silver to 100 parts of copper": in other words, seems to have lasted only about a century and a half, the content of each of the precious metals is less than from the generation ofCicero to the last decades of the 7%. The snag with this theory is that it ignores the 1st century AD. By the early decades of the 2nd evidence in the ancient texts, including the very same century, Corinthian Bronze seems to have been a Syriac manuscript, that Corinthian Bronze had a fashion of the past, for the younger Pliny (the nephew golden (or silvery) colour (47). The matt black of the encyclopaedist of the same name) describes a colouring of the alloys described by Craddock et al is newly acquired Corinthian Bronze statuette as an almost the exact antithesis of the lustrous appearance antique (42). By then, the manufacture of Corinthian of Corinthian Bronze attested in the literature. As Bronze had evidently become commercially pointed out by Engels, this blackish bronze unattractive, and the Imperial attempts to control its corresponds better with the hepatizon alloy mentioned price could only have helped to put a brake on this by Pliny (48). The lower precious metal content in the activity. alloy would account for its inferior standing to true It is fair to point out that other interpretations Corinthian Bronze. have been given for Corinthian Bronze. According to Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, Corinthian Bronze was simply bronze manufactured in the city of Corinth THE ORIGINS OF THEALCHEMISTS' (43). He argued that Pliny's references to gold and TRANSMUTATION DOCTRINE silver were intended to emphasise the prestige of the bronze, rather than their presence in the metal. By the early 4th century AD, when the texts of the Another author who doubts the presence of precious Graeco-Egyptian author Zosimus of Panopolis were metals in Corinthian Bronze is Donald Engels, who apparently composed, the subject of alchemy had has suggested that it was a class of bronze with a high­ taken recognisable shape and had acquired many of the tin content (about 14wt%Sn), that he claims was concepts and nomenclature that are found in later unique to Corinth (44). The boosted tin content works in this genre (49, 50). By then, the Greek terms lightened the colour and made it harder than normal chemeia / chymeia, which became al-kimiya in Arabic bronze. However, these proposals are at odds with the and thence alchemy in English, had come to signify ancient sources, which concur that the term both alloying and "transformation" of metals (51). It Corinthian Bronze referred to specific alloys of copper may be no coincidence that the word chemeia is with gold and silver. Engels was aware of this phonetically close to chemia, the native name for inconsistency and suggested that a bronze-worker Egypt, transliterated into Greek. spread the story that the lighter colour was due to the Towards the end of the 19th century, the additions of gold and silver. In other words, this accomplished French chemist and politician, Pierre interpretation is predicated on the assumption that the Eugene Marcellin Berthelot, and his co-workers alloy called Corinthian Bronze was a forgery, as Engels collected and studied the ancient Greek alchemical concedes. However, the high tin content, on its own, texts. From their readings they deduced that the would not explain the brilliant appearance of concept of transmutation of metals, the primary goal Corinthian Bronze, noted in the ancient sources. of alchemy, derived from the practice of surface Moreover, the Alexandrian provenance of the doors of colouring, or tincturing metals (52 - 54). An Nicanor shows that not all Corinthian Bronze was important early document that deals broadly with this manufactured in Corinth. subject is the Leiden Papyrus X, already mentioned in

64 (fig. GoldBulletin 2000, 33(2) connection with Corinthian Bronze. Of the 99 chemical recipes contained in this papyrus, processes for colouring metal surfaces, mostly to resemble gold or silver, feature prominently. In this regard, the emphasis given in the early alchemical texts to tincturing is striking (55). In Latin the term used is tinctura, which is bapM in the Greek original, meaning dipping or dyeing. The more appropriate word for colouring, chrosis is used in the Leiden Papyrus X. Interestingly, the type of reflux apparatus commonly used by alchemists for treating metals with vapours, was called a kerotakis, a Greek word meaning artist's palette (56, 57). Figure 4 An imageofan archetypal alchemist at work in his The development of Corinthian Bronze is laboratory, amonghis tools and utensils. 16th century therefore seen to be part and parcel of the formative engraving byH Weiditz. phase of the evolution of alchemy, which occurred in Egypt. For the reasons given above, it is hardly yellow in colour and this fact may have added to its surprising to find descriptions and allusions to mystiq ue (64). depletion gilding in the early alchemical literature, However chaotic and esoteric were the ideas that although only in one surviving treatise, the Syriac grew out of the concept of transmutation, at least some "Zosimus" manuscript, is the name Corinthian of the practising alchemists kept their feet on the ground Bronze remembered. Clearly identifiable references and preserved the practical legacy of their ancient to depletion gilding occur in the Physica et Mystica mentors (see Figure 4). We see this, for example, in an attributed to Democritus (58) and also in the oval medallion struck by the 17th century Augustinian Mappae Clavicula, written in the 9th - l Oth monk and alchemist, Wenzel Seyler (65). An inscription centuries A.D, which is more a rational treatise on on the piece records that Seyler transmuted it to gold in alloys and pigments than a book of speculative an experiment performed in 1677. This medallion has alchemy (59). survived and scientific analysis has shown this to be an Initially only true gold was defined as such, but the 11 carat gold-silver-copper alloy that had undergone definition in the alchemical texts was later extended to depletion gilding (66). debased gold. Eventually any metal which had the colour of gold, including metals with a gilded surface was categorised as gold (60, 61). Hence the process of ABOUT THE AUTHOR depletion gilding became regarded as one of transmutation of base metal to gold. The two notions David Jacobson holds doctorates in Materials Science became thoroughly mixed and we can see that the from the University of Sussex and in Classical aphorism of the shadowy Alexandrian alchemist Archaeology from the University of London. Following Agathodaimon, describing the colour changes a spell ofteaching and research in Materials Engineering accompanying the transmutation process, applies at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, equally to the steps in depletion gilding: he established a career in industrial research, developing ''After the refinement of copper and its blackening specialist technical expertise in metal joining. While and later whitening there will be the solid yellowing" serving as Head of the Materials Fabrication Division at (62). the GEC-Marconi Hirst Research Centre, he To draw further parallels, we may see the co-authored a textbook on 'The Principles of Soldering Alchemists' Philosopher's Stone or Elixir (from the and Brazing. Currently he works as a consultant on Greek xerion = dry powder, via the Arabic al-iksir), the electronic materials and holds a part-time appointment wonder agent of the transmutation process, as at the Centre of Rapid Design and Manufacture corresponding to the commonplace mineral referred to attached to the Buckinghamshire University College. He in the early texts as misy, which effected depletion also teaches an undergraduate course on the Jews and gilding (63). Significantly, both are minerals (or the Classical World at University College, London and stones). Moreover, copiapite, the iron sulphate mineral his research interests include archaeo- relating which has widely been identified with misy, is itself to the ancient Near East.

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66 (fig- GoldBulletin 2000, 33(2)